February 28, 2019 Land Use…

February 28, 2019

Land Use Planning Review
Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing
Ontario Growth Secretariat
777 Bay Street, Suite 425 (4th floor)
Toronto, ON, M5G 2E5

To whom it may concern:

RE: Simcoe County District School Board Comments on “Proposed Amendment 1 to the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe, 2017 (2019)”

Thank you for the opportunity to provide comments on the proposed amendment to the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe 2017. The Simcoe County District School Board is aware that Simcoe County will benefit from many of the changes being proposed by Ministry Staff such as streamlining the County of Simcoe’s Municipal Comprehensive Review process and local official plan updates that are now being undertaken.

This letter provides a summary of the Simcoe County District School Board’s Planning staff comments related to these potential revisions to the Growth Plan 2017 document.

Public Service Facilities: Section 3.2.8.6 references that new public service facilities ‘should’ be located in settlement areas. Simcoe County District School Board Planning staff have conducted an analysis and determined that approximately 8,250 public school students in the board's jurisdiction currently reside outside of designated settlement areas with many being accommodated in rural schools, also outside of settlement areas. While planning staff support the intensification policies and intent of the Growth Plan, Simcoe County’s current rural population and school age demographic trends pose unique challenges when trying to best serve the education needs of our rural families. Due to distance factors and established rural schools, directing all rural students to settlement areas is not possible. This coupled with the scarcity of suitable land in some settlement areas for new schools highlights that in some very unique circumstances flexibility is required. As such, Simcoe County District School Board Planning staff strongly support the current language in Section 3.2.8.6 as it provides some degree of leniency to the comprehensive and challenging process of planning for and securing new school sites for a geographically widespread and shifting population across Simcoe County. The current language also provides opportunities for existing rural schools as it can be ensured that school boards have the continued ability to adapt to population changes by providing expansions to rural schools and the necessary infrastructure for these schools where needed to further support these communities.

Settlement Area Boundary Expansions: Simcoe County District School Board Planning staff support the amendment in Section 2.2.8.3 a) which deletes “are” and replaces it with “is sufficient capacity in” and deletes “to support the achievement of complete communities”. The sub-policy would read “there is sufficient capacity in existing or planned infrastructure and public service facilities;”. Simcoe County District School Board Planning staff support the amendment in Section 2.2.8.3 b) which deletes “, based on mechanisms such as asset management planning and revenue generation analyses”. The sub-policy would read “the infrastructure and public service facilities needed would be financially viable over the full life cycle of these assets;”.

Rural Areas: Simcoe County District School Board Planning staff support the amendment in Section 2.2.9.2 which deletes “rural settlement areas” and replaces it with “rural settlements”. The policy would read “Public service facilities in rural settlements should be co-located and integrated in community hubs, and priority should be given to maintaining and adapting existing public service facilities in community hubs to meet the needs of the community, where feasible”.

The above provides an overview of the comments that Simcoe County District School Board Planning staff has with the proposed changes to the Growth Plan 2017. Thank you for the opportunity to provide feedback on the proposed changes to the Growth Plan 2017.

Should you require additional information, please do not hesitate to contact this office.

Yours truly,

Andrew Keuken, MCIP, RPP
Manager of Planning, Enrolment and Community Use
Simcoe County District School Board
Tel: 705-734-6363 ext 11513